Paperback

The English-language debut of renowned Peruvian “gonzo” journalist Gabriela Wiener, Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey through the unexplored corners of human sexuality by one of its most exciting chroniclers.

In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in the company of transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle—all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes.

Fortunately, our gonzo heroine emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives with a sharpness and vision worthy of the best masters of New Journalism.

"No other writer in the Spanish-speaking world is as fiercely independent and thoroughly irreverent as Gabriela Wiener. Constantly testing the limits of genre and gender, Wiener's work as a cronista (which roughly translates, but is by no means a direct synonym, of nonfiction writer) has bravely unveiled truths some may prefer remain concealed about a range of topics, from the daily life of polymorphous desire to the tiring labor of maternity."

-Cristina Rivera Garza, author of The Iliac Crest"These are essays of unabashed honesty and uncommon freedom of mind, bravely reported and beautifully composed. I hadn't known how hungry I'd been for this book, how I'd needed it and wanted other books to be it. Sexographies is an antidote and a revelation, and Gabriela Wiener is a brilliant documenter of sex and life as they really are. "

-Kristin Dombek, author of The Selfishness of Others"Reading Gabriela Wiener is a joy. Over the years, her work has made me cry, laugh, hurt, and most importantly, dream. Her essays are daring, intimate, and honest, containing the self-awareness of a poet and the sharp focus of a marksman. I'd follow her anywhere."

-Daniel Alarcon, author of At Night We Walk in Circles"Wiener writes her adventures as if she were an apprentice to a savage detective."

-Alejandro Zambra, author of Multiple Choice and My Documents"The most striking quality of Sexographies is Gabriela Wiener's fearlessness-her ability to broach any topic without the slightest flinch, however unfamiliar or achingly personal.... Wiener's essays do not deal solely in sex, as the title of the collection may suggest, but in the exploration of identity and gender. How are we to make sense of our own bodies and the bodies of others? Why is it that we-with the internet at our fingertips-supposedly know more than ever, yet often experience less and are less open to the experiences of others? Wiener urges us to ask these questions in order to uncover the artificial boundaries that have confined us to our own experiences. With a voice as unapologetic as it is searching, this gonzo journalist delivers her findings on a wide variety of topics, from egg donation to prison tattoos to BDSM. Nothing is off limits to Gabriela Wiener and she spares her readers no detail of her adventures. The result is Sexographies-an addictive and darkly funny collection that surprises at every turn."

-The Arkansas International"Reading her, one has the feeling of an unexpected closeness, able to go at the speed of heart rate. Gabriela Wiener doesn't seem to have any taboos or issues in revealing to us her own sexuality, her own suffering, her curiosity or her morbid fascination, and this sincerity makes her prose admirable, a bravery not so common in our times."